I recently came across a description of a research study that found a correlation between engaging in meaningful activities and happiness. The lead researcher was Michael Steger, a psychologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. He and colleagues had a group of 65 undergraduates complete an online survey that assessed how many times they participated in pleasure-seeking behaviors and how often they participated in meaningful activities, such as helping others, listening to friends’ problems or pursuing life goals. The survey asked participants how much purpose they felt their lives had each day and whether they felt happy or sad. Online entries were made every day for a three week period.
As we might expect, the more the students participated in meaningful activities, the happier they were and the more purpose they felt their lives had. The meaningful activities listed in the article included both doing good deeds for others and activities that fostered the person’s own goals. It would be interesting to know whether each was equally associated with happiness ratings. Perhaps the more interesting finding of the study is that pleasure-seeking behaviors were not correlated with happiness. I guess that’s bad news for hedonism. I’m sure the Puritans would be glad.
Life Assays 
October 15, 2008 at 5:36 am
I find the results of these studies to be very true and pertinent to my own life. I can think of numerous instances in which I have participated in community service type activities and I can say that doing so has definately lead to a sense of self-satisfaction and increased happiness. I think that many people are too self-centered and self-focused, and that this causes depression and neuroticism in many individuals. Having suffered several bouts of depression myself, I can testify to thiS. Depression is a disease in which one’s thoughts are focused on the self, that is, “I” feel so bad, “My” life is so messed up, nobody likes “Me”, etc. One of the best things a depressed person (or a person who is just feeling down, but is not suffering outright clinical depression) can do is to re-focus their mind off of themselves and onto the needs of others. Doing community service or just spending time listening to another person and trying to be empathetic and helpful can do alot to change how a person thinks about a situation. We americans have life so good, compared to those who live in other third-world countries, not to mention those americans who are less fortunate than us(the homeless, the chronically ill, etc). When we realize how good we have it, that tends to make us see that our lives aren’t “so bad” as the dismal picture that we have painted in our minds.
I think another reason why people experience unhappiness is that they feel that they do not have a purpose and are wandering through this life aimlessly. My church did a group bible study using the book “The Purpose driven life” by Rick Warren. It was an excellent book. I think that it is a basic psychological need for people to feel that their life has purpose and meaning. This would correspond to the fourth and fifth levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, being self-esteem and self-actualization. Feeling that you are doing something that contributes to the good of society and your fellow man generally increases one’s self-esteem. This continues to self-actualization, in which an individual finds their niche in the world, and how they can use their talents to help others, and they feel that they are accomplishing what they were meant to do, and achieving their goals. I think that doing so brings a sense of happiness and contentment.
I think that alot of the percived happiness comes from an individual’s worldview. Many people’s worldview is based upon religious principles. For example, in Christianity, we are taught that being selfless is a virtue, as Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice by dying on the cross. We are taught to help others less fortunate and feel compassion towards our fellow man. I think the religious views are similar in Islam. However, there are some religious worldviews where the ideas about helping one’s fellow man are different. I am not an expert on world religions, but as I understand it, in religions that belive in re-incarnation, it is felt that a person’s current life status is based upon how they lived in their past life. So if a person has a bad situation in this life, it may have been because they did terrible things in their previous life. People in these societies tend not to help those less fortunate because they believe that they are simply reaping their punishment that they deserve.
I noticed that this survey was only conducted on college students in Kentucky. While I think the results would be pretty much the same in all parts of the United States and all other western countries, it would be interesting to see the results if this study was done in other parts of the world.
I guess happiness all boils down to how one thinks about things.
October 16, 2008 at 12:38 am
As you note, being overly self-absorbed can lead to depression, and helping others not only benefits the other person but ourselves. One of the ways it benefits us is to change our view of ourself and our place in the world. Rick Warren begins “The Purpose-Driven Life,” the book you mentioned, by stating: “It’s not about you.” He has a point. When we put ourselves at the center of the universe, we pretty much guarantee that our universe will be a miserable one.
Christianity does certainly teach service to others; Christ described himself as servant to all. I don’t know much about the attitudes toward helping others found in Eastern religions, but I don’t think that the belief that someone is paying off a karmic debt from a previous life necessarily leads to a disinclination to be of help to them. Karma, as I understand it, is essentially a concept of cause and effect: whatever one does will have personal consequences. Perhaps helping others is seen as a way to bring about positive consequences for oneself. There is a Hindu proverb that goes, “Help your brother’s boat across and your own will reach the shore.” That would seem to suggest that personal benefit accrues from helping others.
October 20, 2008 at 11:27 pm
I agree with the study performed by the University of Louisville in Kentucky that doing meaningful activities makes people happier than pleasure seeking activities. I think everyone probably experiences these differenced in happiness on there own at some time in their life. One thing that comes to mind when I think about this blog is the same thing people often worry about when they are on their death bed. “Did I do anything with my life?” Someone who spent their entire life going to parties and spending money on extravagant vacations would probably feel like they hadn’t done anything with their life that would be remembered by anyone else. However, if the person had spent their life helping other, volunteering, and being considerate, they would be happy and more accepting of death. That type of person would feel no remorse or guilt for how they lived their life.
I have also experienced this type of happiness in my own life. I spent the June after my high school graduation working to save money for college and hanging out with my friends on the weekend. The following July, I spent three weeks in Honduras working on a medical mission team. It was very hot and there were many chores that had to be done every day. Although the trip was very tiring, I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything because I accomplished things those weeks that had made an actual difference in people’s lives. I will remember the details of that trip for the rest of my life, but I couldn’t go back and tell you one thing I did on the weekends in June.
While there is no fault in doing pleasure seeking activities, and they do bring friends closer together, there is something about helping others that truly brightens people’s spirits. It may be a sense of accomplishment, making others feel good, or just the warm feeling that comes from inside, but whatever it is; it is enough for people to continue doing good everyday. Therefore, our world will hopefully always continuing doing good, even if the reward is partially shared with the do-gooder.
October 22, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Though for some happiness consists only of pleasure or momentary satisfaction, the sort of happiness that has the deepest effects on us entails something more. One way to describe it is that there is a sense of fulfillment and, even more, a sense that one is doing something meaningful. You put it well: thase who focus their energies on partying or vacationing may eventually regret that they haven’t made any significant or lasting contributions to others. It sounds as if your work on the medical mission team was the sort of experience that led to happiness in the larger sense of being fulfilled. I hope that your memories of that experience will help guide how you decide to invest your time and effort in the future.
November 5, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I agree with the study that was done at the University of Kentucky. Though it was only with 65 students, I believe the results would be similar if it were 500 students. I find this to be true in my life as well, especially around the holiday season.
Every year around the beginning of November, I get these big crazy ideas of what I can do to help other people. One year I went to a children’s home and brought some toys, another year I went to a children’s hospital to do the same thing. I began preparing in the month of November and all the way up to the “big day” I felt so happy and that I was doing something for the good of society. However, after Christmas season when I essentially stopped my meaningful activities, my level of happiness went down.
My level of happiness is somewhat of a roller coaster. I have a great life, great family, great everything, but it doesn’t make me a “happy” person all the time. I feel the most content with who I am when I am doing something for the greater good.
When my 70 year old neighbor calls and asks for a favor I feel worth something. When I am helping my (soon to be) stepdaughter with her homework, that makes me feel good. When I am volunteering at Hospice House, that really makes me feel good. I use to be a clown for Hospice when I was in high school and that was absolutely one of the best times of my life. I had these elderly people, middle aged adults, and sadly, children laughing so hard and enjoying themselves on a regular basis. Because I had this steady “job” like activity I felt worthwile and that I had a reason to be here. Even at the ripe old age of 16, I still felt like I was a better person when I was doing something for someone else than myself.
I have been raised in church since I was born and I have learned something valuable from the whole experience. Yes, I have my personal Savior, but being actively involved in a church community (most that I’ve been a member of), lead to an above average level of happiness. It seems that every month there are things to be done, lawns to be mowed by the congregation (of the elderly), field trips or outings of the different groups, and volunteer work, and of course prayer groups. In the churches I have went to, I remember all the “cool” people in my eyes were always doing these activities and they seemed to love doing them. I started trying it out too, but of course my mother and father made me at first! Singing Christmas carols at the nursing home was always fun as a child, but as an adult it seems more fulfilling. I don’t just sing carols, I am showing these people that I care about them and that we want them to smile for a few minutes. To say the least, it is my strong opinion that churches help push people forward to do these things that are more meaningful.
I am by no means a perfect person who is always volunteering and helping others. I do go to school full-time and have a chaotic house to run at home, but I do try to do activities that are meaningful. I have often wondered the true reason I do these things. Is it because I actually care about other people or am I just a selfish person who just wants to make myself feel good. I can’t lie, it is a bit of both. I hope more people loving that selfishness! I have always been a people person and I do love to see people smile and to help them, but I will admit it does feel really good at the end of the day to feel like I have done something meaningful. So, yes, I am a bit selfish in my ways, but I am only a human, and am definitely not perfect.
November 5, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Jennifer,
Thanks for your comment. The question of why you (or anyone) does things to help others is a good one. Actually, it has divided social psychologists. Some think that all helping is egoistic, that is, people help others because it makes them feel good or provides them with other benefits. The opposite view is that some helping is truly altruistic, that is, it solely a result of concern for the other person. I favor the second view, but think it’s always useful to examine which set of motives we are operating from when we help someone.
I also find it interesting that your parents insisted that you do things to help before you had the desire to do so, but you eventually acquired the desire. Acting selfishly usually comes more naturally to children than does acting helpfully, and it’s beneficial to both the individual and others if parents make the effort to socialize their offspring to help. You’re fortunate that your parents taught you something that resulted in such lasting satisfaction.